The Phoenix Eye
Chapter 9
The Flame of the Phoenix
-- Midgar, Reactor No. 3, a Moment Later:
Samuru made a dramatic exaggeration of lowering his finger slowly and depressing a button on his laptop. Behind him the makeshift machine with the glowing orbs began humming. The topmost cradle, which had until this time remained dormant, began to glow with dark purple energies. The rough black stone inside the metal cradle began floating in the coursing light, refracting a myriad of muted colors across the room.
"Come everyone." the remnant called into the open room. "I know you're there, and I want you all to see this. Come Tifa, I know you and your team are hiding just behind that door to my left. And I know that the Turks are on the floor above me, come on out on the catwalk where I can see you."
The rest of the team grudgingly emerged from their respective hiding spots as Samuru had instructed. Cloud was quietly reassembling his First Tsurugi as Tifa cam into view on the opposite side of the room. As their eyes met, anxiety faded from Tifa's expression, the sudden loss of communication between the two having strained her emotions greatly. The Turks also came forward slowly, weapons drawn, expressions severe. They did not like being toyed with.
"That's close enough." Everyone froze, remembering what had happened the last time this order had been given and disobeyed. "Now that everyone is here, except of course for Reeve Tsuesti, who is on his way with the military, I will show you what I have made."
Samuru stood and turned his back on Cloud, taking a few steps to the machine behind him with the glowing orbs.
"This machine…" he began mockingly, using a tone expected of a museum's tour guide. "…uses mako energy to activate materia. So instead of utilizing the limited energies of my own body to cast spells, I use the unlimited energies of the planet itself."
"You won't be using the planet's life for your twisted machine!" Barret called from his position on the catwalk. A split second later his mechanical gun arm was hosing bullets at the slender remnant and his lopsided machine. And just as had happened with Vincent, a semi-spherical wall of light manifested as the bullets reached the threshold. Everyone ducked as stray shots ricocheted wildly around the room. The gunner kept up his attack, expecting the magical barrier to succumb to the overwhelming gunfire, as all such barriers eventually did. But Barret's magazine ran empty, the entire room having been perforated except for the area immediately around where the remnant was standing.
Samuru was smiling. "Please don't interrupt, Mr. Wallace." he called back softly. He calmly returned his attention to the machine. "As you have just witnessed, materia used in my machine is amplified beyond its normal power limits. This barrier materia," he said, gesturing to one of the glowing orbs in the machine and just in front of his hand, "has become so strong as to render me virtually invincible, as demonstrated by your large wild friend." Samuru smiled again at Barret. "This second one I haven't used yet, and will keep a surprise for now. Where as this simple lightning materia," he said moving to the third orb in the row, "has been amplified to generate a very powerful, very constant, stream of deadly electricity. The effects of which were experienced first hand by Cloud and his comrades."
The group turned towards Cloud, who had finished assembling his sword. The metal of the weapon was now streaked with black where the electric current had disrupted the tempered steel crystal and caused it to fuse with the melted dust particles from the surrounding air. Cloud's clothing and armor was burnt and frazzled, Vincent's cure spell having done little for his appearance. The rest of the group understood now why Cloud's group had been lost from the communication link. Thinking back on the electrical attack, Cloud remembered something peculiar the remnant had said.
"Samuru." the swordsman queried carefully. "When Yuffie used the life spell on Cid, you mentioned the universal thirty second limitation on restoring life. But you then said that you were not restricted by that limitation. What does that mean?"
"Don't get ahead of the story Cloud," the remnant responded condescendingly. "I was just about to get to that part." Samuru turned his attention to the fourth cradle, higher up than the other three, being almost even with the remnant's chin. Contained with in was the black stone, currently absorbing a great amount of swirling purple energies like some miniature representation of a black-hole swallowing the burning gas of a nearby star. "This… is a very unique conglomeration of melted and re-crystallized materia. According to legend, it was formed when the fire god Phoenix died, high up on the Da-Chao Mountains, fighting to protect the people from the gods of evil. The legend continues saying that as the people mourned for their god, their tears brought the beast back to life, the great bird bursting into existence in a great ball of flame, melting the nearby rocks and sandy soil into a bowl of black glass. As the great fire god flew up into the clouds, the stories say that he returned a single tear back down to the people who had saved him. The tear fell onto the hot glass-like bowl, breaking off a small piece as the tear cooled the spot it touched. This shard of obsidian was a powerful artifact, and came to be known as the Phoenix Eye. This very same stone that I have right here."
"That's a lie!" Yuffie yelled at the remnant. "The Phoenix Eye was destroyed by my Uncle Lord Goshen during the war against Shinra. And it wasn't made of obsidian, it was a ruby pendant held in place by a gold phoenix. And he destroyed it with his sword to keep in out of the hands of Shinra."
Samuru laughed. It started as a simple chuckle, but quickly expanded into full blown I'm-a-mad-scientist maniacal laughter. "No, my sweet young ignorant Wutaian flower…" Yuffie glared at him, trying to decide whether or not he was insulting her. "The ruby pendant your uncle destroyed was a fake. A decoy. That stubborn Wutaian warlord was too proud to destroy his nation's only hope for defeating the Shinra. So he tricked Sephiroth and everyone else by letting himself be killed in the very act of destroying the fake stone."
"That can't be true!" Yuffie argued back. "My father would have told me."
"Lord Godo never knew!" the remnant countered. "He never bothered to read the ancient texts detailing how the ruby pendant was made in order to fool would-be thieves. How the legendary Sword of House Kisaragi was specially constructed to house the real Phoenix Eye concealed carefully in the handle. Or how the ceremonial prayer was invented, and carved into the blade to give the Wutaian king an excuse to hold the sword in front of him, pretending to read the prayer – which I'm sure they all had memorized anyway – while in reality, slipping his thumb carefully under the fabric of the sword grip to touch the materia stone hidden inside."
"So, that's why you killed Professor Stian." Nanaki's soft voice interrupted from behind the remnant. "The professor must have read the ancient texts and discovered the truth about the Phoenix Eye. And when he snuck into the Kisaragi manor to prove his theory, you killed him and took the stone."
"Very good." Samuru said smiling. "You always were the intelligent one Nanaki."
"But why these games?" Cloud asked warily. "Why bring us down here just to hide behind a barrier boasting of your exploits. You have to know by now that you can't overpower all of us."
"Come Cloud, are you really that dense?" Samuru said laughing. "Did I not tell you that I already won? Tell me, traitor, what do all children of Jenova want to happen?"
"Reunion." came Cloud's response, echoing the voices he had heard in his head so many times.
"Very good, and you Yuffie Kisaragi, just in case your friends do not know the stories, what is the foremost power and purpose of the Phoenix Eye?"
Yuffie stared at the remnant, her eyes widening in shock as she realized the sinister possibilities of the black obsidian stone gathering energies behind him. "To… To bring the dead back to life. Having no limit to how long they've been dead."
Everyone stared at Samuru.
"Do you understand now Cloud? Sephiroth and Kadaj both attempted to bring to pass the reunion. But where they have failed, I will succeed. All thanks to the power of the Phoenix Eye."
"I've heard enough." Vincent's gravelly dark voice came from behind Cloud. The swordsman spun around to witness Vincent Valentine holster his traditional tri-barelled handgun Cerberus, and pull forth a larger weapon known as The Death Penalty. Turning on the Power to his prototype railgun, Vincent gave the rest of the group one final piece of advice, before leveling his sights on the remnant. "No mater how strong his barrier is, it can't hold up forever."
The custom tritanium round was magnetically propelled from Vincent's chosen weapon, approaching close to the speed of light by the time it had exited the barrel. The projectile crashed into the magical protection field, atomizing on impact. The entirety of the barrier lit up with the energy of the blow, becoming an opaque glowing sphere for a fraction of a second. Several more shots exploded from Vincent's gun as the rest of the team sprang into action, drawing their weapons and moving forward, or unloading gunfire of their own.
Between the flashes of light that marked the impacts against the protective barrier, Samuru could be seen calmly stepping over to his desk and pressing another key on his laptop. The last orb of materia, the only one that the remnant had not yet activated, began to glow red. To the eyes of all present, the vast room began to become dark and faded, like a tinted lens was being drawn over their eyes. Sound's deadened and seemed distant. The air grew cold, and throughout the room, hearts began to beat faster. Everyone recognized the effect of energy being drawn in to form a summon spell. But this effect was far stronger than that of any summon they had ever before experienced.
Shards of light materialized throughout the room, floating around and in-between the fighters like thousands and thousands of fireflies. For a moment, the fighting stopped, the group being transfixed by the spectacle surrounding them. But the sparkling lights shifted their momentum, and began flowing together at various points around the room, condensing into the magical constructs known as 'summons.' Usually a summon spell would produce one such creature, its body composed of congealed magical energies, to fight and do the bidding of its creator.
But as the twelve fighters scanned the room it was quickly realized that more than one summon was forming. On every surface, under the catwalks and across the walls of the reactor's core chamber, hundreds of spider-like creatures were taking shape. Standing from the floor, the summons stood about three feet high, half a man's height, and had a leg span of about eight feet. Each of the arachnoid creations kept six dexterous legs fastened to the floor, wall or surface it resided on. While an additional pair of appendages swung menacingly in front of the creatures, brandishing scythe like talons curved to wickedly sharp points. The summons advanced on the surrounded fighters.
Each member of Cloud's team sprang reflexively into action. Each had been participants in countless battles before and knew how to defend themselves in the face of overwhelming odds.
"These things are creepy!" Yuffie complained as her Shuriken exploded through a nearby spider-creature, its destroyed body evaporating in black smoke.
"Hey." Cid called back to her, dispatching his own group of monsters with his spear. "At least there not real and spilling insect guts all over the place."
"Eww! Just ewwww!" the young ninja responded.
Cloud destroyed a dozen of the menacing creatures with a single sweep of his giant sword. But no sooner had here cleared the space around him than several more of the creatures began taking shape in the empty space. Distant scratching and shuffling noises told the swordsman that more of the pests lurked beyond the reactor core room, scrambling to enter and get their piece of the action. Cloud glanced back at Samuru, who was standing peacefully behind his protective barrier, watching the battle around him with calm confidence.
Tifa was punching and kicking, folding the hairy creatures in half or sending them rocketing across the room to splatter on the far walls. Barret was hurling a constant stream of bullets and profanity at the approaching monsters, using a hard punch or heavy boot to crush those that got too close. Cid spent most of his time in the air, using the agility of his "dragon style" martial arts to give him the appearance of flying. Quick jabs from the pilot's spear skewered many of the creatures, while long sweeping strikes sent them crashing into one another. Nanaki bounded from platform to platform, shredding the summons with his swift claws or crushing them with his powerful jaws. When the old warrior wasn't carving a swath of destruction, he was using his repertoire of materia to cast healing and protection spells on his allies as it was needed.
Yuffie was also soaring through the air between the catwalks, catching and throwing her shuriken repeatedly at distant targets while slaying closer ones with the smaller ninja weapons at her disposal. Vincent had transformed into the demon Death Gigas, who was pounding walls, beams, and catwalks with his giant fists, crushing some of the creatures while sending bolts of electricity through the metal to dislodge others and send them falling into the depths of the mako well beneath them. Shelke had drawn her twin fighting knives and was weaving a dance of death and destruction too fast for anyone present to follow.
The Turks dominated the upper platforms. Tseng and Elena stood back to back, firing their handguns with pinpoint precision, turning in tandem to face new opponents. Like Tifa, Rude destroyed his share of creatures with his hands and feet, utilizing his own brutal martial arts style. While Reno whacked, stabbed, and shocked his opponents into submission with his infamous electro-mag-rod.
Cloud took in everything. They were all doing well, but it wasn't enough. No one was attacking the remnant.
"This is just a distraction." Cloud yelled out fervently. "As long as he hides behind that barrier he can keep summoning these things indefinitely." Cloud took out another score of the spider creatures with multiple sweeps of his sword.
"This is some distraction." Yuffie responded, her breath winded.
"Yeah," Barret agreed between reloading his gun. "What are supposed to do? Let these things chew on our legs while we pound that coward behind his shell?"
Cloud became more insistent. "We have to try! We have to destroy that machine before he finishes what he's doing. Reeve… If you can hear me, this would be a good time for you to show up."
"Almost there." Reeve's voice responded through the speaker on Samuru's laptop. "Though there appears to be some kinds of giant insect crawling all over the outside of the reactor…" The remnant reached over and cut the volume on his computer, severing the link from those who had lost their communicator.
"We're fighting those things inside the reactor." Tifa explained, her two-way radio earpiece working just fine.
"Tell him to get his butt down here and help us out!" Cloud hollered.
"Cloud says get your butt down here and help out." Tifa relayed with a bemused smile.
"Can we do enough damage to break the barrier in between fighting these things?" Yuffie asked with a desperate tone.
"We have to try!" Cloud called out determinedly. "All clear for Ultima!"
Yuffie, Shelke, and Nanaki immediately vacated the area around Samuru and his sphere of protection, as they recognized the standard warning that preceded all uses of the most powerful single attack spell the world had ever known. Blinding light burst forth from a small materia orb contained in the first slot nearest the hilt of the powerful First Tsurugi. In the small instant between the initialization of the spell and its release, all was quiet. Cloud drew in the massive amounts of energy required for the devastating spell, his enhanced body able to harness power far beyond that of a regular human. In that very split instant, as every fighter and creature, every pipe cable and steel beam was cast into relief by the piercing light of the activated Ultima materia, Cloud's gaze met with Samuru's, and for the first time he saw fear in the remnant's eyes.
A beam of raw concentrated energy shot forth from Cloud's sword, disintegrating any of the summons unfortunate to have been in the way. The chaotic energies exploded into the magical barrier surrounding the remnant, billowing around it like fire, warping and twisting the metallic structure of the mako reactor and its attached accessories. More spider creatures succumbed to the expanding sphere of pure destructive energy. The shining ball of death continued to grow until it reached its critical size, and then it faded, the spell energies depleted. Samuru stood unharmed beside his machine, though he was no longer smiling.
Death Gigas strode forward past Cloud and slammed his giant fist into the defensive energy field. The sphere of light returned to block his blow, but it shuddered at the impact. To the surrounding fighters the barrier appeared less stable than it had been before. Samuru sat down urgently at his desk and began typing at his computer. The summoned monsters resumed their attacks with added vigor and the machine behind the remnant began to hum more loudly.
"Ok let's do this!" Cid called as he jumped into the air. His spinning spear sweeping aside several monsters before it turned to crash down on the barrier in Cid's patented "dragon dive" maneuver. Cloud split his sword into two parts, keeping up an almost constant stream of attacks against the sphere with one weapon while cleaning out summons with the other. Yuffie found time in between her fighting to unleash a few choice selections from her personal collection of attack materia, and the rest of the group quickly followed suit, finding some spell or special attack to drop on the remnant when time and energy allowed.
Slowly the intensity of the barrier began to fade, and Samuru's expression became increasingly nervous. From beyond the limits of the room came the sounds of military support, as machine gun and mortar fire rained into the monsters outside. The WRO was closing in. Then the remnant did something that Cloud did not understand. He stopped typing at his computer, closed the laptop, and stood up, taking place at the far end of the barrier beside his machine. This confused Cloud and the others. Were they too late? …Or was he simply giving up? The barrier collapsed in a deafening crack and one part of Cloud's First Tsurugi found its way into the materia machine. Sparks flew and the glowing light of mako faded from the three materia orbs and from the Phoenix Eye. The summoned monsters faded from existence and the sounds of approaching soldiers filled the passages beyond the room. Cloud's other blade was pressed to the remnant's neck, daring him to make a move.
Reeve and the WRO flooded onto the catwalks as Cloud's team closed in to confront the remnant. Samuru did not move, but stood against the wall with a small determined smile cracking across his lips. Vincent shifted out of his demon form and leveled his gun at the remnant. Almost every other weapon in the room was doing the same.
"Don't you have anything to say?" Cloud asked the remnant sternly.
"It doesn't matter if you beat me." Samuru responded softly. "It doesn't matter if you kill me. Mother will always return. Mother will win no matter what you do to me."
"Humph." Reno snorted. "You remnants are all the same. 'Mother this' and 'Mother that' and blindly following that rotting old parasite to your own doom and destruction."
The remnant did not honor Reno's comment with a response.
"Well Cloud, Reeve…" Tseng began as he approached Samuru. "Would you mind if the Turks took care of imprisoning the remnant until a trial can be scheduled. We haven't had much to do since the decline of Shinra and we do sort of specialize in this kind of thing.
Reeve looked to Cloud, who nodded and withdrew his sword from the remnant's neck. "He's all yours for now." the WRO president informed the Turks.
Rude grabbed Samuru's arm and twisted it behind his back, grabbing the back of the remnant's collar with his other hand.
Reno laughed mockingly. "You don't put up much of a fight yourself do you?" he asked sarcastically as the Turks began to lead remnant towards the exit.
Yuffie quickly ran over and began collecting the various materia that the remnant had used against them. The first three materia orbs she pocketed quickly, but her hand paused as she reached to the fourth cradle, the lifeless black stone resting dormant in the metallic bowl.
"So this is the Phoenix Eye." Yuffie said to herself. "I never thought I would actually see it." The ninja stood transfixed as the dim lights of the room refracted off of the obsidian surface lined with veins of red and green. "With this I could make Wutai powerful and great …like we once were."
"Be careful Yuffie." Nanaki's wise voice cautioned her. "Wars have been fought over that stone. In this time of peace it might be better to finish what your uncle started, and destroy it."
"But Wutai is so small… so weak." Yuffie protested, casting her eyes to the ground in shame. "We used to be strong."
"Since the fall of Shinra, and Wutai's return to freedom, the nation has been recovering." Reeve interjected. "Would you want to start a new war? That's really the only real way the stone could be used for power and glory."
Yuffie clenched her fists and shut her eyes, torn with internal desires. Everyone was watching the ninja and young leader of Wutai to see her decision. None more intently than the remnant Samuru.
Yuffie shook her head violently. "I'm not going to start a war, but I'm also not going to destroy the Phoenix Eye. It belongs to me and to Wutai. And I will decide how best to use it."
With that the young ninja shot her hand forward and snatched the coveted artifact. In one quick motion she moved to pocket the stone along with her other materia but her hand stopped before it reached the pouch. Yuffie's arm shot forward again, this time in the motion of throwing the Phoenix Eye, but the stone remained in her fingers.
"Somebody help me! Its burning me!" the ninja screamed.
The closest of the warriors rushed forward and attempted to pry the obsidian stone from her fingers. But her hand was stuck fast to the rock, which was now beginning to glow red with heat. Samuru, the remnant, was laughing.
"What did you do?" Reno screamed at the remnant who was still held fast in Rude's grip. "What's happening to her?"
Samuru laughed again. "She has finished my spell. The last heir to the Kisaragi clan has touched the Phoenix Eye. She should be proud to have completed the reunion." The remnant laughed louder now and Reno smashed his electro-mag-rod into the man's face cracking his jaw. Samuru went limp in Rude's arms.
A shockwave exploded from the Phoenix Eye, which was now glowing a bright white, illuminating the room. The soldiers and friends who had been trying to free the ninja's hand were thrown back with the force of the energy. Yuffie was still attached to the artifact, the sound and smell of burning flesh apparent to all in the room. The ninja screamed again in pain. Slowly the orb began rising into the air, first dragging Yuffie across the floor, and then picking her up off the ground entirely. She grasped her left hand fiercely to her right arm which was still attached to the floating rock, trying to prevent the limb from being torn out of its socket all together. Her jaw clenched hard, tears of extreme pain streaming down her cheeks as the Phoenix Eye erupted in purple flame.
Another shock wave tore forth from the singularity and the young ninja was finally free of the tormenting artifact. The force of the energy threw her down hard towards the depths of the cavern below, far faster than if she had merely fallen. In the time it took most present to even recognize that Yuffie was in danger, Vincent leapt across the chasm and retrieved the young Lord of Wutai, landing safely on the far catwalk. The dark flames emanating from the Phoenix Eye began to spread, take shape, and then condensing, forming the outline of a humanoid figure.
"Everyone needs to get out of here." Cloud said sternly, staring at the face of the forming figure in front of him, which, though it did not yet have eyes, seemed to all present to be staring back at Cloud.
"It's Sephiroth, isn't it?" Tifa demanded urgently. "The remnant has resurrected Sephiroth!"
"No." Cloud responded. "Not Sephiroth…" The burning face was smiling at him now, the coalescing energies forming into green slitted eyes. The face… He would know that face anywhere, even though he had never actually seen it except in his dreams. The purple light congealed into the tangible body of a slender naked female form. Silver hair coursed down her back as she spread her black feathered wings.
Cloud recited the name of the abomination before him. "…Jenova."